"Life at the Sharp End..."
A Message from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Director
Base Commander Nick Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D. Commanding Officer |
"If you're with S.H.I.E.L.D.
for any length of time, you're going to hear a
lot of hot air about 'Duty, Honour and the Good
of The Human Race - General Hammond likes to make
speeches that glorify our little endeavour here
as something like a holy crusade to keep our
planet free for Truth, Justice and the American
Way. It's not his fault, he's been hanging around
with politicians for too long... But I'm here to
tell you that our job is nothing so noble - I've
been a soldier since before most of your fathers
were born and no matter how often someone with
scrambled egg on their shoulders has bent my ear
about the righteousness of the fight, the dirty
work is always the same: we're here to fight and
- if necessary - die for the cause. My name's Fury, Nicholas J. Fury and I'm responsible for you while you wear that S.H.I.E.L.D. patch on your shoulder. I'm not here to fill your heads with visions of glory and adventure - forget the stories about exotic locations, treasure and strange aliens that you'll hear in the barracks and the mess - that's not a part of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s job. We're soldiers, first and foremost and that means we leave the sci-fi stuff to the experts. I don't care if you're facing a bunch of cavemen or a squad of Horus Guards - if you forget why you're there, you'll be coming home in a bodybag. |
I'm not trying to trash the job the SGC does - in the few years they've been around, they've handled as much blood, sweat and tears and taken down as many bad guys as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s finest - but we have our own job to do. It may not be as glamorous as the one Jack O'Neil and his team do, but at least we don't have to cosy up to the Asgard. Every day, I send S.H.I.E.L.D. teams into the field on missions that any sane man would consider madness and I expect the men and women who make up those teams to obey orders without question because they know I won't ask them to do anything I wouldn't do myself. Expect to see me in the field often, because I'll be damned if I'm going to fly a desk while there's action anywhere on the other side of the gate.
One more thing, I expect nothing but the best of the men and women who serve under me and in return, I give only the best - regardless of rank, the Officers Club opens at nineteen-hundred, the first drink is on me!
